Mercury strolled quietly down the sidewalk, taking special care to seem relaxed. It may have been a little…risky, to say the least, just walking out in the open, but the last guard he had seen didn't seem like she was on alert. Which meant that Arc and his friends must not have informed the cops yet. A strange choice, but not all that out there, he supposed.

They probably had at least until morning before a proper search was organized. At most, the worst they would have to deal with would be Arc getting restless and going out looking for a fight. Neither he nor Emerald would have much of a problem dealing with them, especially if they split up. The smart thing to do would be to go on the offensive, link up with Emerald early and go hunting before they got a chance to alert the authorities.

Except for the small problem of Arc being Saphron's brother. It was the same reason they avoided a fight at the house. Killing him wouldn't exactly be a challenge, but…there wasn't any point. Terra and Saphron would still be alive to call the cops, and there was no chance he and Emerald were going to lay a finger on them.

It was a weird feeling for him. It wasn't like they had even known the couple that long, but the idea of hurting Saphron and Terra turned his stomach in a way that was unfamiliar to him. It was like with Emerald. Hurting them just…didn't make any sense. He didn't want to, even if it would save them so much trouble. And by extension, they couldn't hurt Arc or his friends. They were important to Saphron and Terra, so they got to live. As a favor for them, and nothing else.

He growled in frustration, turning a corner. It had been two hours since he and Emerald had split, and he had nothing to show for it. He hoped she was having a better time finding a hideout than he was.

Where had it all gone wrong? Where was that first, fatal mistake that fucked everything up? Not ditching Cinder. Hell no. That was the best decision they had ever made in their lives. So what then, was it coming to Argus? Was that the error? Would they have fared better taking their chances in Vacuo or something?

No, Argus was definitely the right choice at the time. It was perfect for what they needed, and what they needed to avoid. By all rights, Arc should have no reason to be here. Why would they go to Atlas? It was in the middle of a lockdown!

So not that. Argus was a solid choice. But once they made it to Argus, was that when they screwed up?

Jadis was a mistake, no two ways about it. From the get go, she was nothing but problems for the two of them. But they had made mistakes before. Jadis may have been an exceptional pain in their ass, but they had managed to deal with her without too much of a problem. It never escalated into something they couldn't handle. It nearly did, if Adrian hadn't woken him up during the break in, but it didn't.

The train was just a waste of their time. They risked so much trying to secure their shot at the dust, only to give it up at the last second, in the vain hopes of laying low with the Cotta-Arc's.

That had to be it then, right? The Cotta-Arc's. That was when everything shifted, when the plan went sideways and neither he nor Emerald could make heads or tails of what it was they were trying to do. As a matter of fact, they were the only reason the two of them were in this mess in the first place. If they had just stuck to the original plan, he and Emerald would be getting ready to lift the dust off the Argus Limited right about now, without so much as hearing a whisper about Jaune Arc.

But he still wasn't sure he could call it a mistake. For all the trouble it had brought them, their time with the Cotta-Arc's had been the best they had ever had. Or at least, the best that he ever had, and he was fairly certain Emerald felt the same way. For the first time in his life, he could pretend for a while that things would work out fine. Without the Cotta-Arc's, he and Emerald would be holed up in their old hideout, miserable as ever. Without the Cotta-Arc's, they would never be able to know what it was like to have a normal life, brief as it was.

Without the Cotta-Arc's, he and Emerald might never have fully understood how they felt about each other. And while they hadn't really had a chance to properly talk since then, he at least had the certainty of knowing exactly what he and Em meant to each other. And that alone, if nothing else, made all of this worth it.

So, no. They hadn't really made any huge mistake that led to this, at least not one that was really their fault. Sometimes, it didn't really matter. It didn't matter that they had given up the train. It didn't matter they had settled on trying to lay low, to try and take the Cotta-Arc's up on their offer at a second chance. Sometimes bad things just happened. It didn't matter if you were selfish or selfless, if you tried to do the noble thing or not. They had tried so hard to make it work, and they were fully prepared to give up their old life. Emerald for sure was sick of it, and if it made her happy he certainly didn't care if they decided to go civilian.

But it was always a long shot, and once Arc entered the picture it became impossible. They had tried. Brothers, they had tried. And it didn't work. Now they were put right back to square one, only this time, there were people who knew they were in the city. They were thrust right back into the exact same life they were trying to leave behind.

Their shot at a normal life was gone. It didn't bother him all that much, oddly enough. He knew Emerald was devastated, of course, but he had never really believed it would go well for them, even if he was willing to stick it out for her sake. The world just didn't work like that for people like them. They would go back to the way things were, and the two of them would never see the Cotta-Arc's again.

He frowned. That…that did bother him. And for the life of him, he couldn't puzzle out why. Shouldn't he be more upset that Arc showed up? That they were going to have to go back to the streets?

But he had expected that, hadn't he? Everything going wrong wasn't much of a shock. The Cotta-Arc's though…he'd miss them, a little. Saphron was off putting at times, but he had never met someone so unapologetically nice in his life. Terra was a refreshing dose of sanity, surrounded by the chaos that was their lives. Adrian was a little demon, but even then he had warmed up to the little sucker eventually. He wasn't so bad once you knew how to bribe him.

And right now, they were probably sitting at home reeling from the revelations of who he and Emerald really were. They probably hated them, and with good reason. And the knowledge that they hated them left an empty, hollow feeling in his gut.

Nothing to be done about it now, he thought bitterly. What's done is done, and any bridge that led towards the Cotta-Arc's was just burned. It was nice, for a while. But it was over now. And no amount of regret was going to change that. Focus on the present, and try and salvage something out of this city. They had to find somewhere to hide fast.

Where the hell even am I? Mercury slowed, taking a look around. He grimaced. Nothing around him was familiar. He and Emerald had been in Argus for weeks, and he had spent a good amount of time walking the town, but Argus was a big city. He must have gotten distracted in his thoughts, and wandered off somewhere new.

He sighed in exasperation. Just what I fucking needed. Oh well. It wasn't like it was the end of the world. It wouldn't be too much trouble to get to a rooftop and look for a familiar landmark to orient himself. But it was just one more way that the world chose to screw with their day.

He decided he may as well see where his path took him. It wasn't like he was having much success otherwise.

Mercury had somehow found himself in one of the nicer parts of the city. Or at least, one of the cleaner ones. Not all that strange, he supposed. Saphron and Terra seemed pretty well off, if their house was anything to go by.

He frowned, looking ahead in the distance. There was some sort of small, circular courtyard or something. He walked a little faster, curious.

His eyes widened, as he entered the small clearing. He scoffed in disbelief, almost smiling from the insanity of it all. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

Before him, at the center of the courtyard, was a statue depicting the late Pyrrha Nikos.

Mercury strained his neck to look up, struggling to get a better view of the statue in its entirety. He shook his head. "Of course," He muttered. "Because this day just keeps getting better and better."

For a while, he was silent. Crossing his arms, he glared at the statue as if he was trying to bring it down through sheer spite. Finally, he uncrossed his arms with a sigh.

"You know, you should count yourself lucky," He said, addressing the statue. "You died before it all truly went to shit. And you managed to net yourself another little moment to shine, didn't you? The Invincible Girl, bravely marching on to face the architect of Beacon's destruction by herself, because it was her duty." He scoffed. "You weren't so Invincible then, were you? Of course not. Not at the only time it fucking mattered."

"I hate you, you know. People like you," He clarified. "You got the whole world delivered to you on a silver platter. Legions of adoring fans, more money than you probably ever realized, and enough talent to ensure you wouldn't be fading from the spotlight anytime soon. And you had the gall to hate it. Do you have any idea what I would have given to have a fraction of the life you had? What Emerald would have given?"

He shook his head. "Course not. You were just another spoiled brat, weren't you? Skilled, maybe, but spoiled nonetheless. Do you remember our little fight?" He asked suddenly. "I wonder what you would have done if we had a real fight? You obviously knew I had to be pulling my punches, otherwise you wouldn't be so annoyed. At least you could recognize a good fight. Brothers, you pissed me off. You were leagues above everyone else at that school, but you couldn't help playing at the meek little schoolgirl. Too shy."

He paused for a moment. "And too damn indecisive. We knew you were going to be the pick for the Maiden. No one else even came close to being a competent candidate. Oz must have told you before the festival, or at least, some time before the fall. But you couldn't just suck it up and do what you had to, could you? Emerald and I already did the hard part, the last girl was more than half dead!"

"But you just had to wait until the last fucking minute. What was the problem? What, you just wanted a normal time at school? News flash, you were never normal! Do you have any idea how much I had to hear about you? Mostly from Cinder whining about you. About how you were one of the biggest obstacles to getting the Maiden powers. About how much of a perfect fighter you were, from all of the other students. As if they knew a damn thing about real fighting."

He growled. "You were nothing more than an upjumped tourney fighter, who managed to be born lucky. You got a nice home, and a pretty little family, and a semblance that paved the way for your success. I'll never understand people. How they can look at someone like you, and admire you. Every breath I took, I had to pay for in beatings. Every time I pushed myself back up, I got a broken hand for the trouble. And when I finally managed to stand up for myself, and put up a fight, I got part of my soul ripped out of me."

"Spoiled brat," He snarled. "What did you ever have to work for? I'm twice as good as you ever were. I'm sure you had all the tutors you could ever ask for, to nicely walk you through all kinds of different techniques, and give you a shiny medal when you got one right. I had my father. You have a semblance practically no one would ever really be able to fight against. Mine was stolen. I survived Beacon, and you're nothing but ashes in a ruined city!"

He held his hands out in disbelief. "And look at this! A fucking statue! You're dead, you died a failure, and you wind up with a fucking statue!" He spat. "Why? What about you is so damn special, hm? You were born lucky. Is it because you died doing the noble thing? Well bullshit! Like that's so special. Emerald and I, we never had a fucking choice! She was scum, less than nothing in society's eyes even before Cinder found her. And I…I never even had a chance." His voice was hoarse, hollow from so much screaming. "I never even got to leave the mountain before Cinder found me. I should have just died up there, saved myself the trouble of everything that came after. Then you could still have your perfect little life."

He hung his head, panting. He hadn't realized how worked up he was. "You, Ruby Rose, Arc, you're all the same. You never had to fight for a damn thing. You chose to. But you're the ones people remember, you're the ones people look up to. What makes you so much better than me and Emerald?"

"Circumstance," He said desperately. "That's all it is. That's the only difference between you and I. Fighting in tournaments is nothing. I would have liked to see you survive Marcus Black. I would have liked you to kill the bastard crippled and mutilated. I would have…I would have…"

His voice faltered, dropping almost to a whisper. "I would have been happy, I think," He said mournfully. "If things were different. If I had a life like yours. Never really had the time to think about it before, but then, these last few weeks I haven't had anything but time to think. And the more I think about it, the more I hate my old man. Didn't even think that was possible, but hey, what do you know?" He let out a bitter laugh, his voice cracking. He was struggling now to keep his eyes dry.

"I've been thinking about what he took from me. Not just my semblance, or my legs. About the life he took from me. Why the hell did I have to be born to a piece of shit like him?" He challenged. "Why couldn't I get a life like yours, hm? Where's the fairness in that? Where's the fairness in a kid telling himself it's his fault he's getting beat because no one else ever told him otherwise? How come I never got a sliver of what you did? A scrap? One shitty little moment where my dad was sober enough to smile at me? One lousy memory, or at least a picture of my mother. Just one!"

Mercury sighed, stumbling back exhausted. He felt drained, somehow. "I hate you," He hissed. "You and everyone else just like you. You think you're so much better than Emerald and I. You go to school, and get good grades, and grow up to be nice little Huntresses and Huntsmen, and pat yourself on the back for being good people. Fuck you!" He screamed, scratching his throat. "You're not doing anything for yourself, just what's expected of you! What you were raised to do. How is that any different from me? You'd do exactly the same as Emerald and I if you were in our position, only you'd probably wind up dead first. You think you've suffered, that you had to work hard to get remembered? I could have shown you suffering. I could have shown this whole city suffering, when we first came to this shithole!"

He ran his hand through his hair, forcing himself to calm down. He was going to draw attention, if he hadn't already. "But I…I never wanted that," He muttered, unable to scream anymore. "I just wanted to be left alone."

"Is that true?" A voice asked behind him.

His eyes widened in fear, and he spun around, bringing his leg up to his chest. He only just managed to stop himself from firing, when he saw who it was. "Terra?" He blurted in surprise. He took a closer look at what she was holding in his arms, tilting his head in confusion. "Adrian?"

Terra's eyes were as wide as his, clearly terrified of his reaction, and acutely aware of how close she had just come to being shot. He lowered his leg, taking a step back. "What the hell are you doing here? And how long have you been here?"

Despite her still coming down from the adrenaline, Terra cleared her throat, doing her best to sound relaxed. She was failing miserably. "I was looking for you, funny enough," She said, almost accusingly. "And…long enough."

He scowled. Great. No telling how much she heard. He hadn't exactly been quiet when he had been chewing out the statue of a dead girl. "Why are you looking for me? You're supposed to be the sensible one. I have to assume Arc told you who Em and I are."

She bit her lip. "Saph and I…we had a hard time believing it fully. We needed to know for ourselves."

He scoffed. "So you decide to go off into the city, alone, in the middle of the night, to go looking for two people you strongly suspect to be extremely dangerous criminals?" He shook his head in disbelief. "And you brought a baby. Do you have any idea how incredibly easy it would be to kill the two of you right now?"

"Yes, actually, as a matter of fact I do," She snarked. "And for the record, I brought Adrian specifically because I knew you wouldn't hurt him. Or me, for that matter."

"Oh really?" He drew out. "Like you know me so well."

"I know that you've lived in my house for weeks without a problem," Terra said confidently. "I know that if you actually wanted to hurt me, or Saphron, or Adrian, you could have done so at any time. And that it probably would have been better for you if you did. And I also know that you didn't, not unless this is a really stressful version of the afterlife."

"Fine then," Mercury spat. "Whatever they told you, it's probably true. And I guarantee you they don't know the half of it. Whatever it is they think I've done, I can assure you I've done a thousand times worse, a thousand times over. So there's your answer! Now fuck off and leave me be, before I decide to change my mind."

"Absolutely not!" Terra said, offended.

Mercury sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry what? Did you not hear a single word I just said?"

"Oh, I've heard almost everything you've said, Mercury," Terra said defiantly. "I've been here for a couple minutes. Look, I'm not going to pretend that I know…anything really, about what's going on. With you, with Emerald, with Jaune. But I'd like to think we're friends by now, or at least friendly."

He snorted, crossing your arms. "Seriously? I kidnapped you Terra."

She grinned. "Nah, you coerced me. Totally different."

"This isn't a game!" He hissed. "What do you even want from me? We left the house, didn't we? I told you what you wanted to know! Why are you still here?"

"Because I'm waiting for you to come home," Terra said simply.

Mercury stared at her in shock. "Are you insane? In what world is that a good idea? For you or for me?"

"I already told you I know you aren't going to hurt me," Terra said. "As for you…look, you said no one ever gave you a chance, right? That you just wanted to be left alone, when you came to Argus? Alright. This is me, giving you a chance. The same chance I offered you and Emerald when we first let you stay. Come back, and we can figure this all out."

"How is this hard for you to understand?" Urgh, she is so frustrating! "Emerald and I are public enemy number two and three after our old boss. Who, for your information, also wants to kill us. We are literally the most hated people on the planet right now. I don't think it's possible to have more enemies than us. Enemies, by the way, who include your brother in law."

"Saphron and I will talk to Jaune," She said dismissively.

"We're directly responsible for his partner's death," He reminded her. "Talking isn't going to solve much."

"So what, you don't even want to try?" Terra argued. "You won't give it a chance?"

"Why are you so insistent on this?" He challenged. "You should be running away right now."

"I told you, first I had to hear it myself, from you," She said. "But then…then I heard you, venting to the statue. You didn't sound like someone who was happy with where they were in life." She took a step forward, very slowly. "When we first agreed to take you and Emerald in, we knew you two were criminals. Granted, we thought it was just petty theft, and scaring the crap out of some people, but still. We let you in, because we wanted to help you. Because we had a chance to actually do something, instead of letting you two back out onto the streets. And…and I think that still applies here. You obviously don't care about your old life right now. Come with me, please, and I promise I will do everything I can to make sure you can stay."

He narrowed his eyes, but he didn't take another step back. "And what about Emerald? She's expecting me. I promised her I wouldn't leave her alone tonight."

"Saphron's looking for her right now," Terra told him. "And I'm sure she'll agree to come back. I know she loved staying with us. Look, Jaune said he has more friends who should be here by tomorrow. If you don't come back with me now, they're just going to start looking themselves. And do you really want that? I mean, even if you manage to avoid them, you'll be right back to square one. Nowhere to go, and nothing to do but fall back on what you know. Killing and stealing." She took another step forward. "Come back with me. I know you aren't the friendliest person in the world. Brothers, if it weren't for Emerald I'd assume you just naturally hated everyone on the planet. But you matter to me, you and Emerald both. And I like to think we matter at least a little to you too, otherwise you never would have bothered to listen to me speak for so long. Come back with me, so you don't have to go back to the slums. Prove to me, to Jaune, to Emerald that you two aren't just the same scum everyone else thinks you are. Come back."

She slowly raised a hand, stretching it out towards him, careful not to drop Adrian.

He stared at her hand for a moment. It was so tempting. Wouldn't it be nice? He could just take her hand, go back and pretend nothing happened. That they could still have a somewhat normal life. That he wasn't a murderer. That he wasn't scum. That was a fairytale, though. A fantasy. The only hope he and Em had was finding somewhere to wait everything out, and hope they stay hidden.

But…but what if he did go with her? What then? Would it really be so bad? He was tired. Tired of running, and hiding, and doing the same shit again and again and again hoping things might be different for once. Why couldn't he take a risk now?

His father had taught him nothing was ever easy. And Cinder had shown him not to trust anyone.

But he murdered his father, and Cinder was a bitch. He didn't really care what either of them thought. This was his life, and it was his choice to make.

He ignored her hand, grabbing Adrian out of her hands and walking past her. "Idiot," He chastised her. "You're going to catch a cold. You and the baby."

He heard a laugh behind him. "Hey, at least I'm properly dressed for the weather. You should have seen what Saphron went out in."

"Lovely," He rolled his eyes. "I stand corrected, Adrian, it seems no one in your family is the sensible one."

Offended, the toddler took his revenge by latching onto his neck with a ridiculously wide grin. Mercury sighed. "Come on, you little Grimm. Let's get you back home."

Saphron shivered, wrapping her arms around herself in an effort to stave off the cold. Maybe…maybe she rushed off a bit too soon. She probably should have at least thrown on a jacket real quick.

Well, they were too far from the house now, and she was determined to find Mercury and Emerald. The sooner she did, the sooner she could go back to the warmth of her home. "H-Have you s-seen anything yet?" She managed to ask.

Saphron frowned at the silence. You could at least say no. She turned around to ask again, and winced. Nora's arms were crossed, and she was raising an eyebrow. "Right, um, sorry," Saphron apologized sheepishly.

Nora shook her head with a smile, and shrugged. At least she didn't seem offended? That was a plus, right? "So, did you see anything?" She asked again, this time looking at Nora.

The energetic girl shook her head once more, then pulled out a scroll. Her fingers flashed across the screen, and she held it out for Saphron to read. I still think this is a REALLY bad idea. Why are you so sure that we're wrong about who they are?

Saphron sighed. "I'm not…I'm not sure of anything! That's kind of the problem. Look, at this point, I do believe you and Jaune. I think Mercury and Emerald are more or less exactly who you say they are."

Nora thrust her scroll out almost forcefully. Then why are you out here? They're dangerous!

She scoffed. "I knew that from square one. I might believe you, but I still don't think that's all there is. It can't be, it just doesn't make any sense. There has to be a reason they chose to stay with us, and you can't tell me it was because they knew we were related to Jaune. They were as surprised as you were when all of you showed up, and they were pretty quick to run off. And…well, it's important to me. I care about those two. We've lived together for weeks. I need answers."

Nora scowled. They helped kill my friend. They helped destroy Vale!

"I know that!" Saphron snapped. "Don't you want to know why? I'm not asking you to let them off the hook or anything, I just want to talk to them! Understand, a little. They might just be the two people who helped bring down Beacon to you, but they've been my roommates for weeks now. You might have seen them around a few times before the fall, but I've lived with them. And I don't believe that any of this is as simple as any of us believe."

Nora bit her lip, clearly still in disagreement with her. She typed out one last message for her. If they start a fight, I'm GOING to finish it.

"So long as you give me a chance," Saphron breathed a sigh of relief. "That's all I'm asking for."

Argus was a big city. Maybe not so big as Vale used to be, or Atlas still was, but it was still a very large city. It was also the middle of the night. Which made their search…well, difficult didn't exactly do it justice, in her opinion.

The cold wasn't doing her any favors, either. Nora at least had the benefit of having her Aura unlocked. It was getting to the point where she was about ready to commit arson just to have something to warm her up if they didn't find something soon.

Thankfully, she was spared from such drastic measures.

They found her by chance, mostly. They were walking by an alleyway they had already passed earlier, when Nora heard a sniffle. She got her attention by grabbing her shoulder, and pointing towards the alley. Nora made a point of leaning against the corner of the alley, letting her know she'll stay back.

Saphron nodded in thanks, before slowly making her way down the alley herself.

Emerald was sitting on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chin. She was whispering quietly to herself, though Saphron couldn't make out more than a word or two. She obviously wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings.

The closer Saphron got, the clearer Emerald's words became. "Again," She was muttering. "It's happening again. And I can't do a damn thing to stop it. Back to living on the streets. Back to living like trash. We were happy dammit! We were…we almost…"

Emerald broke into a quiet sob, or at least she was trying to be quiet. Saphron took this as a chance to approach. Slowly, she reached out, gently placing a hand on Emerald's shoulder.

Saphron felt Emerald freeze, and heard a sharp intake of breath. Instantly, she disappeared, and even the feeling of Emerald's shoulder underneath her hand vanished. Just like how it was back at the house, there wasn't even a trace of the girl left.

Her semblance, Saphron thought. She wasn't caught by surprise this time. She knew Emerald was still there, even if every one of her senses told her otherwise. She kept her hand hovering in the air, trusting logic over her instincts.

"Emerald," She began gently. "It's okay. Really. I'm just here to talk, that's all. You don't have to be scared."

"Scared?" Saphron almost jumped. Behind her, a much more threatening image of Emerald had appeared. She seemed livid, almost larger than life. It made Saphron want to shrink away from the thief's anger. Every word rang throughout her ears. It's an illusion, She told herself. She couldn't have gotten behind me that fast. "What makes you think I'm scared of you?"

Saphron forced herself to keep her voice level. "Well, for one, you did run away." She pointed out. "That tends to imply some sort of fear."

"I know they told you who I am," The false Emerald snarled. Her voice felt like daggers dragging themselves down her back. "What I've done. What makes you think it's a good idea to come near me?"

"I'm perfectly well aware it's a terrible idea, thank you very much," Saphron replied smartly. "As someone keeps reminding me. Still, I had to come looking. I was worried about you and Mercury."

For the first time since it appeared, the illusion of Emerald flickered, shock written all over her face. Saphron felt her hand begin to grow tired from holding it up, but she forced it out of her mind. It isn't real.

"You're lying," Emerald accused.

"I'm not," Saphron said simply. "You should know that. It's not like we're strangers, you should have a pretty good idea of how I am by now. You didn't honestly think I'd let you two run off without any kind of explanation, did you?"

"There's nothing to explain that you don't already know," Emerald said miserably. "So if you're hoping for me to tell you that your brother is wrong somehow, you can screw off now. Whatever they told you is true, I'm sure."

"I know that already," Saphron sighed in exasperation. "Honestly, it's in one ear and out the other with you. I don't care about that. Not right now, at least. Come back with me, and we can get this all sorted out."

"Sorted out?" Emerald scoffed. "You're acting like this is just some argument that can be smoothed out over dinner. We're criminals, Saphron! Murderers! We are directly responsible for Beacon's fall! Even if I wanted to go with you, do you think your brother is going to let the people who did that just waltz into your house?"

"I'm not saying this is going to just smooth over, Emerald," Saphron told her. "I'm asking you to come with me so we can try. I mean, do you want to stay out here? I heard you, Emerald. I know you don't want to go back to…to this. You said you were happy. I'm choosing to believe you. Come back with me, and give it one more try. What's the worst that can happen? If Jaune or anyone else tries to attack you, you can just escape again with your semblance. But I'm trying to help you, Emerald. I want to know why you spent so long with us. And hopefully, I can talk the others out of doing anything drastic."

Saphron sighed. "It's your choice, in the end. I can't exactly make you come back, after all. But…I want you to know that I want you to. You and Mercury both. I was the one who made the offer to let you two stay, remember? Trust me."

The vision of Emerald flickered again, then disappeared. For a moment, she thought she had failed, that Emerald had just left without so much as a word.

Saphron felt Emerald before she saw her. The strain in her hand disappeared as the feeling of Emerald's shoulder returned. Almost immediately afterwards the girl herself appeared, just as how she was when Saphron first approached her.

Her head was tilted just enough that Saphron could see her face. Her eyes were rimmed red, tears trailing openly down her cheeks. "I-I don't want it to be over," She choked, her breath hitching with every word, struggling not to break down sobbing. "I don't want to have to leave, I don't want to go back to how it was before, I don't, I-I,"

"Shh," Saphron hushed, wrapping her arms around the poor girl. "I told you, it's alright. We're going to go back home. We'll figure everything out then."

Emerald stood up with her help, allowing Saphron to lead her out of the alley. Nora must have heard them and realized what was going on, because she was gone when they got back to the sidewalk. Saphron was glad. She didn't want to scare off Emerald.

The easy part was over, at least. She didn't know where Mercury was, but she had a feeling if he wasn't already home, he would find them eventually. She doubted he would leave Emerald's side for long.

Now she just had to get her answers. And hopefully stop her brother from killing her roommates.

Man, I picked a TERRIBLE time to take a week off. The last week has been one nonstop hectic mess of family emergencies stressing me out to no end. And it all came outta NOWHERE.

But, I got done what I needed to get done, and I didn't write (for this fic at least) for a week. Which means, starting today, I'm getting back to it. It was nice for a bit, at least.

Thank you for reading, and if you enjoyed it, then please, leave a comment!

As always, I crosspost on AO3!

Next Chapter: Tuesday, July 9th